Ok, so I managed to cobble some of it together.

Where it seems to break is when you try to build out the new Force Powers to match those you have updated in the Force Abilities.xml.

When I copy say Move and rename all the MOVE keys to ENHANCE, it breaks when I try to add a Force specialization to a character.

Has anyone managed to make this work?

if you're copying an existing power or ability into DataCustom and then renaming the key, make sure you add a <Custom> tag with a value of "Added". The new powers you're creating might not be showing up in the data if you don't do that. That could cause problems if you create a specialization or power that expects those keys to be present.

Ok, I will try that.

More special thanks goes out to Kaosoe and Michala for their contributions. Appreciate the support!

So I tried that, but no luck.

It no longer crashes when I add a Force specialization, but the ones I add don't seem to show up in the list of Force Powers you can buy.

So for example, despite copying the File for Move, renaming everything to Enhance and then duplicating the Move Entry in Force Abilities and renaming Move to Enhance, Enhance does not show up....

Jaime

So one of my players tried to use the Character Generator to add a species, and he did so and it works for him. But when he tries to send me his xml file he cannot find a matching species data file to also send me. Where are the species files made from the data editor stored?

Try looking in DataCustom\Species .

Right so this is odd.

I tried making a new species, and I did indeed find the xml file in the DataCustom folder. However two of my players have noth decided to play species not yet added to the generator and have made new species themselves. However neither of them have a folder called DataCutom. They both have the newest version of your program as well.

However we know for a fact that their species are SOMEWHERE on the computer as they can select that new species in the list of species when making new characters...

Hey, great editor!

I noticed one small bug: The filed front sight weapon attachment's mod (Decrease the difficulty of concleaing this weapon by 1) does not stick when you try to add it. Going back into the attachment shows the mod un-checked after it's been added and it's effect does not show up on the character sheet.

So one of my players tried to use the Character Generator to add a species, and he did so and it works for him. But when he tries to send me his xml file he cannot find a matching species data file to also send me. Where are the species files made from the data editor stored?

Try looking in DataCustom\Species .

Right so this is odd.

I tried making a new species, and I did indeed find the xml file in the DataCustom folder. However two of my players have noth decided to play species not yet added to the generator and have made new species themselves. However neither of them have a folder called DataCutom. They both have the newest version of your program as well.

However we know for a fact that their species are SOMEWHERE on the computer as they can select that new species in the list of species when making new characters...

Then just do a search for the file name on the computer and it will tell you were it is.

So one of my players tried to use the Character Generator to add a species, and he did so and it works for him. But when he tries to send me his xml file he cannot find a matching species data file to also send me. Where are the species files made from the data editor stored?

Try looking in DataCustom\Species .

Right so this is odd.

I tried making a new species, and I did indeed find the xml file in the DataCustom folder. However two of my players have noth decided to play species not yet added to the generator and have made new species themselves. However neither of them have a folder called DataCutom. They both have the newest version of your program as well.

However we know for a fact that their species are SOMEWHERE on the computer as they can select that new species in the list of species when making new characters...

Are you sure they have at least version .10? You can look in Data\Species to see if it's in there. That's where they'd be in earlier versions. Newer ones should have it in DataCustom\Species.

They apparently did full harddrive search and found nothing by that name, and of course Data/Species was the first place they looked. Seems like I'll wait untill I can actually see their computers sometime...

Has anyone typed up descriptions of all the Talents that they'd like to share?

Has anyone typed up descriptions of all the Talents that they'd like to share?

Not that we could publicly admit, Diggles. That's the one piece of intellectual property — the descriptions of talents, gear, etc. — that FFG first told Ogg to not include. Granted, there's the editor so we can put that info in ourselves, and it's possible to share the resulting files... but legally , that would require us to know that the recipient owns a legally-acquired copy of the rules.

I'm sure if you could sufficiently prove to someone here that you own the book, they could share the data files with you, but it would have to be privately done and through a means other than this forum.

And you'd better believe I know how this idea works. When I was working on HeroForge, I had to deal with this sort of tangled legality ALL THE TIME. I took a lot of shortcuts and hand-waves that barely managed to follow the rules. Ultimately, I think what really kept me from getting a cease-and-desist from WotC was the fact that half the staff was using my work to make characters, and they weren't giving me credit for it.

This is great stuff, so I hate to note an omission when so much work has been poured into this.

In Vehicle modifications, I was specifically looking for the High-Output Ion Turbine attachments for spaceships, and wasn't able to find it. It may have been left out of the XML document from the one I downloaded.

I'm needing it to create the profile of the Krayt Fang from the beginner boxed set.

Is it possible for me to add the XML myself, or should I just wait for the next update?

This is great stuff, so I hate to note an omission when so much work has been poured into this.

In Vehicle modifications, I was specifically looking for the High-Output Ion Turbine attachments for spaceships, and wasn't able to find it. It may have been left out of the XML document from the one I downloaded.

I'm needing it to create the profile of the Krayt Fang from the beginner boxed set.

Is it possible for me to add the XML myself, or should I just wait for the next update?

I'll add it to the next release. I looked through those three or four times and still missed one

I just discovered this... and it is amazing. Oggy, this is quite a gift to the community, thank you!

Any word about the Filed front sight modification issue OggDude?

Any word about the Filed front sight modification issue OggDude?

Not yet. I've been modifying the data editor to allow users to create their own keys, instead of using the "USER" keys. It's minor, but it'll help you make new items and such with a key that makes more sense, plus allow better portability. Next, I'm tackling force powers and ability editors.

More than likely, it's a minor glitch. I think I might also modify items and attachments to allow better ways of matching attachments with items. Right now, you have to add an item key list, which then needs to be updated if you add a similar weapon. I'm thinking about adding something like "Category" so that you can categorize items better. For instance, filed front sights is only for pistol-sized weapons. I currently have a list of seven different item keys that are pistols. If you want to add your own pistol, you would need to add the key for that item to the list of acceptable keys for filed front sights, and do the same thing for any other attachment that works only for pistols. However, if you create an item and set one of its categories to "Pistol", then set the filed front sights attachment to be allowed on anything with category "Pistol", you wouldn't have to do that.

Anyway, just something else I'm working on right now.

Any word about the Filed front sight modification issue OggDude?

Not yet. I've been modifying the data editor to allow users to create their own keys, instead of using the "USER" keys. It's minor, but it'll help you make new items and such with a key that makes more sense, plus allow better portability. Next, I'm tackling force powers and ability editors.

More than likely, it's a minor glitch. I think I might also modify items and attachments to allow better ways of matching attachments with items. Right now, you have to add an item key list, which then needs to be updated if you add a similar weapon. I'm thinking about adding something like "Category" so that you can categorize items better. For instance, filed front sights is only for pistol-sized weapons. I currently have a list of seven different item keys that are pistols. If you want to add your own pistol, you would need to add the key for that item to the list of acceptable keys for filed front sights, and do the same thing for any other attachment that works only for pistols. However, if you create an item and set one of its categories to "Pistol", then set the filed front sights attachment to be allowed on anything with category "Pistol", you wouldn't have to do that.

Anyway, just something else I'm working on right now.

Sounds like a pretty good solution to me, and the best way to handle future publications/additions

Any word about the Filed front sight modification issue OggDude?

OK, I figured out the problem. Yes, it's a minor glitch, but unfortunately, there's no perfect way of dealing with it. The issue is this: mods for attachments come in two flavors: item descriptors (saved in the ItemDescriptors.xml file), and on-the-fly miscellaneous descriptors, which are saved with the attachments. Most mods have only game-play abilities, rather than abilities that actually modify the character, so those are basically just text descriptions and that's it. I save those on-the-fly, while other abilities that actually modify something in the character I'll save in ItemDescriptors.xml.

Misc descriptors don't have keys, since there's nothing to look up. They only have descriptions. So, if a purchased mod has a blank key, I know that it's a misc mod and, instead, compare the "MiscDesc" property with the same property saved with the user's item. And that's where the issue is coming in. When I copy the description from the attachment to the character's item, it's modifying the text. Specifically, if the original text had a newline character in it (LF, or linefeed), it's being converted to CRLF (carriage return, plus line feed). Therefore, the descriptions don't match, and it doesn't see you as having purchased the mod.

The reason the original is lacking the CR is probably because of the editor I used when I originally created the attachment file. So, I could go through all attachments and make sure all LF's are turned into CRLF's, or I could come up with a better way of doing this that doesn't involve comparing descriptive text. The other solution would be to modify ALL misc modifiers so that none of them contain ASCII formatting characters, but that would mean everyone would have to go through all of their characters and make sure all of their attachments still have all the mods intact.

Anyway, I'll work on it

I don't know if anyone else ran into these issues, but I'll mention them here.

The first one was after doing the database conversion for the homebrew stuff I'd entered (worked fine), I then went to change the entry I made for Knowledge (Galactic Civil War) to Knowledge (Warfare) as per the Week 1 AoR Beta update. However, while the DataEditor seemed to recognize this change, the Skill file in DataCustom did not. I opened that Skill file in Notepad and manually forced the change to Warfare.

The other was that I then sought to update one of my custom specs (Jedi Initiate), which seemed to go fine. But when I brought up a previously saved character that had purchased the Specialization, the program locked up and I pretty much had to force a shutdown if I tried to view the spec for this character.

What I wound up doing was changing the talent back to it's original value, saving, going into the chargen app and removing the spec from that character, saved that file, went back to the DataEditor, made the update again, and then re-opened the chargen app and simply re-purchased the spec, with it now showing the updated talent. Oddly, the old talent had not been purchased by the character, so not sure what caused this issue.

Since it seems any new data is now saved in the DataCustom file, I don't think this will occur in the future, but just a heads up to anyone else that's added custom data in older versions and wants to change it in the newer version.

I don't know if anyone else ran into these issues, but I'll mention them here.

The first one was after doing the database conversion for the homebrew stuff I'd entered (worked fine), I then went to change the entry I made for Knowledge (Galactic Civil War) to Knowledge (Warfare) as per the Week 1 AoR Beta update. However, while the DataEditor seemed to recognize this change, the Skill file in DataCustom did not. I opened that Skill file in Notepad and manually forced the change to Warfare.

The other was that I then sought to update one of my custom specs (Jedi Initiate), which seemed to go fine. But when I brought up a previously saved character that had purchased the Specialization, the program locked up and I pretty much had to force a shutdown if I tried to view the spec for this character.

What I wound up doing was changing the talent back to it's original value, saving, going into the chargen app and removing the spec from that character, saved that file, went back to the DataEditor, made the update again, and then re-opened the chargen app and simply re-purchased the spec, with it now showing the updated talent. Oddly, the old talent had not been purchased by the character, so not sure what caused this issue.

Since it seems any new data is now saved in the DataCustom file, I don't think this will occur in the future, but just a heads up to anyone else that's added custom data in older versions and wants to change it in the newer version.

The generator checks for removed talents, specs, equipment, all of that sort of thing, and just fixes the problem or selects something else so the character is still valid. However, it might not check to make sure that specialization skills are valid. So, if you changed the key of the warfare skill to something else, and didn't change it in the specialization, that may have been what caused the crash.

I'll double check that I validate that spec skills, as well as career skills saved with the character, are actually validated.

Edit: OK, I just checked the code. It does validate that the character's skill list only contains valid skills (that is, it adds new skills to the list and removes any skill that it can't find in the main data). However, when i calculate skills, it does assume that any skill referenced by main data, such as careers, specializations, species, or item attachments, does, in fact, exist. This is what it should do, as main data should always be correct unless it was modified by hand and hosed. Then, all bets are off

So... it looks like there was an entry error and you changed the key to the skill or something like that. And yes, if main data has invalid references, you can get crashes and lockups. One thing the data editor does, in fact, is disallow removing items that are being referenced by other items, specifically to prevent this from happening.

I found the GM tools would crash if I tried to edit an NPC group I'd created. For example...if I put 5 minion level Stormtroopers together and save it...then I later want to modify them, it won't let me even load them up no less edit them. Outside of that it's all way too cool. The PC group sheet is a life-saver!! I also noticed there is a lightsaber skill...ok I'm nitpicking here...it's spelled 'LightSaber'...shouldn't it be 'Lightsaber'? Darn my OCD!!!

I found the GM tools would crash if I tried to edit an NPC group I'd created. For example...if I put 5 minion level Stormtroopers together and save it...then I later want to modify them, it won't let me even load them up no less edit them. Outside of that it's all way too cool. The PC group sheet is a life-saver!! I also noticed there is a lightsaber skill...ok I'm nitpicking here...it's spelled 'LightSaber'...shouldn't it be 'Lightsaber'? Darn my OCD!!!

Good catch! And timely, as I'm about to release the next version Added encounter groups were not getting an important piece of data when newly created. This would work if you closed GM Tools, then loaded it again, as all the groups were being properly initialized. Anyway, this has been fixed.

And I renamed the "Light Saber" skill to "Lightsaber" The actual lightsaber weapon already had the proper name.

Version 1.0.0.12 is now available. Here are the changes:

• Fixed an issue in the data editor where generated "user" keys were being validated against the main data, rather than custom data. It will now validate against custom data.
• In the data editor, you can now use your own keys instead of the editor always creating "USER" keys for you. Any key you create must be unique for that type of item in both main and custom data. You may only specify a key when the item is added, not when it's modified.
• Made some internal enhancements to armor, weapons, and vehicles (moddable items) and the corresponding item attachments they may have. You can now give moddable items one or more categories that they belong to. These categories can now be used by item attachments as a limit to what items can use the attachment, rather than only having exact item key matches. This will allow added weapons to be able to accept particular attachments as long as those items are given the proper categories. For instance, if an attachment only works for Carbines and Rifles (two of the new categories), you can create your own rifle-like weapon and give it a category of Rifle and the attachment will work for it as well. Additionally, item attachments can now be limited by Type (such as "Melee" or "Energy Weapon") or by Skill (e.g., attachments that only work on Ranged - Light weapons, or Gunnery weapons).
• Enhanced editors for weapons, armor, gear, and vehicles to use the new multi-category feature.
• Updated armor, weapons, and item attachments to use the new category methodology.
• Changed all vehicle categories to correspond to new category methodology.
• Added capability to filter equipment by category in the Equipment pane of the character generator.
• Added editors for Force Abilities and Force Powers.
• Fixed an issue with Filed Front Sights attachment, which could also affect other attachments. When comparing MiscDesc-type mods (ones that aren't stored in ItemDescriptors.xml), all white space characters are now removed before the comparison to make sure only the text is compared. Before, extraneous carriage return characters were being added when the MiscDesc property was being transferred to the character, and the comparisons were returning False. The Filed Front Sights attachment will now keep its optional mod settings.
• Fixed an issue in the character sheet where miscellaneous mods from attachments were showing up for weapons and armor as "Qualities". Now, only actual weapon and armor qualities will be listed there. Miscellaneous mods will only be listed under the appropriate attachment.
• Added the "Heating System" attachment for armor. This attachment was unintentionally left out.
• Added the "High-Output Ion Turbine" attachment for vehicles. This attachment was unintentionally left out.
• Fixed pricing and made changes to a few vehicle attachments that were incorrect.
• Fixed a potential issue with force powers where loaded characters were getting their force powers recalculated before all the references were in place. This would cause an exception. This problem has been fixed.
• Changed "Light Saber" skill name to "Lightsaber".
• Fixed an issue in GM Tools where if you add an encounter group, then immediately try to modify it, an exception was raised. This will now work properly.
• Fixed an issue with innate weapons (such as unarmed) where the "Shown" status wasn't being saved between loads. Because innate weapons do not have a reference to an actual weapon, all innate weapons were being removed on character load, then added back with the "Shown" status set to default (false). Innate weapons loaded from the character file will no longer be removed on character load, and the "Shown" status will remain intact.
• Added a new property to Force Abilities called "Power". This field should be something descriptive of the power the ability goes with and is used primarily to differentiate similar abilities across powers. For instance, the "Strength" ability is found in all powers, so the "Power" property for Move would be "Move". For "Control" abilities, of which there can be several per power, I'm using something like "Sense-1" and "Sense-2" to differentiate between them. This property has no actual use within the generator. However, it will be displayed in the Force Powers data editor so that you can tell which ability is which, without resorting to showing keys. All current abilities have been updated with this new property.
• The documentation has been updated to reflect recent changes.

And another "thank-you" goes to RudyHuxxxtable for his donation!

Oddly, with the Jedi Initiate, it doesn't have any skills attached to it (much like the F/S Exile doesn't offer any career skills), so it's doubtful that was the source of the issue. Unless someone else comes up with a similar issue, I wouldn't spend any time worrying about it.

Oddly, with the Jedi Initiate, it doesn't have any skills attached to it (much like the F/S Exile doesn't offer any career skills), so it's doubtful that was the source of the issue. Unless someone else comes up with a similar issue, I wouldn't spend any time worrying about it.

I did discover a bug that could cause existing characters with force powers to throw an exception when loaded. That's been fixed in the .12 release. Maybe that was the issue.